scarlet letter study guide

What two necessities, according to Hawthorne, must the founders of a new colony provide immediately?

Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the ideology of Puritan society in the novel the Scarlet Letter; however reader also get to witness his characters being an illustration of hypocrisy and victims to their own guilt. In the Scarlet Letter, as in many of Hawthorne’s shorter works, he makes profuse use of the Puritan past: its odd exclusionary belief, its harsh code of ruling, its concern with sex and witchcraft. The Scarlet Letter is a story that is embellished but yet simple. Many readers may view this novel as a soap opera due to the way Hawthorne conveys this Puritan society’s sense of strictness and inability to express true emotion along with the secrecy and how deceiving the characters are being. As the story unfolds the main character Hester Prynne is bounded in marriage at an early age. She engages in an adulterous affair with an unknown member of their small village. Hester soon becomes pregnant and with her husband’s absence the chances of this child belonging to her husband are slim. The towns’ people know that she has committed a sin and imprisons her for her crime.

This ridicule has a trickle down effect on Hester as she too is banished from her own community for committing adultery. The comparison between Hester and Hawthorne defines the external struggle for the reader to fully understand the effect of opinions from society on them Although reluctant to allow Hester to leave prison, the members of the town suggest that her punishment be to wear a scarlet red letter A on her bosom, thereby allowing all to know of her crime. The scarlet letter “ was red-hot with infernal fire, ” (Hawthorne 81) and defined the state she was currently in, that being eternal hell. Though she was forced to marry an older man at a young age, her rebellion to have an affair is not seen as an internal struggle that she overcame; rather, it is merely seen as a woman who sinned, a woman who shall therefore endure the punishment for the sin, rather than a woman who was never given a say in what she wanted with her life. Time and again, Hester Prynne is seen defying society by allowing herself to stand out from societal norm just as the roses “with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner“ (Hawthorne) did. Instead, she returns to the community and is observed aiding those in need, all with seven year old Pearl by her side.

The Puritan townspeople of Boston, Massachusetts, punish a woman for committing an ignominious act with an unexpected man. Hester stands alone on the scaffold as townspeople scowl and judge, wondering who her lover is. The innocent town seamstress is a sinner in the eyes of the pure citizens. As Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter continues, the residents notice Hester’s abilities when caring for her daughter. She also regains respect as the bearer of the scarlet letter, the emblem she wears that “takes her out of the ordinary relationships with humanity and encloses her in a sphere by herself” (Hawthorne 51). Mistress Hester Prynne is an example taught to others because of her hardships faced without her true love. Hester transforms

   Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne repeatedly portrays the Puritanical views of sin and evil.  The Puritans are constantly displayed as believing that evil comes from an unyielding bond being formed between love and hate.  For such reasons they looked towards Hester's commitment of adultery as an action of pure, condemned evil.  However, through the use of light and dark imagery, Hawthorne displays who truly holds evil in their hearts.  The one who is the embodiment of evil creates hypocrisy of Puritanical views towards sin and evil.  Hawthorne displays that those who expose sin to the public and the daylight are the most pure and those who conceal their sin under a

Through the characterization of the beadle as a man with an aura of misery, Hawthorne illustrates the “dismal severity” of Puritan society and the lives it creates for those who follow its policies. With its multitudes of rules, punishment and humiliation naturally manifest as the “business” of Puritan society; instead of focusing on helping others, the Puritans spend all their time trying to condemn anyone who can fill the ever-present role of the “offender,” who they then subject to their harsh penalties for daring to step out of line. Hawthorne characterizes the beadle as the primary enforcer of these rules, dominating and draining the pleasure from their lives. However, Hawthorne characterizes Hester as an exception to the obedient Puritan citizens. When the beadle pulls Hester out of the jail, “she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air, as if by her own free will” (Hawthorne 50). By “repell[ing]” the beadle, Hester resists Puritan society as a whole, choosing instead to follow “her own free will” rather than the laws and customs of society. Instead of choosing to suppress her individuality, she chooses the most “natural” option when she refused to have Puritan society control her actions. But despite her insubordination, Hester has “dignity”: her actions do not strip her of her grace, rather they amplify it. By characterizing Hester as someone with “force of character,” Hawthorne

Despite the severity of her crime, she does not show any denial - or even regret - for committing adultery. Instead, she embroiders the scarlet letter “A”, a mark that was intended to shame her, onto her dress to make it look pretty. Here, readers can see Hawthorne's use of irony to support his thematic message. By turning her punishment into a display of how her beauty “shone out and made a halo of … misfortune and ignominity,” (Hawthorne, 51) Hester lessens the humiliation she would otherwise have to endure. After serving her prison time, Hester is allowed to roam free and move wherever she pleases; yet she stays in the very town she was shamed in.

Hester's true beautiful self been shown to the world again after being locked away because of the scarlet letter. “Her sex, her youth and the richness

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter unfolds the tale of Hester Prynne, who brought forth a child through adultery and battles a life faced with the consequences of her sin. Throughout her life, Hester is consistently reminded of her affair as she wears a scarlet letter representing “A” for adultery, experiences alienation, and encounters hostility from the Puritan community. However, Hester is not the only individual who suffers with consequences of adultery as both her significant other, Dimmesdale, and daughter, Pearl, endure miserable lives of shame, guilt, and rejection. Hawthorne demonstrates that the revelation of the truth can allow one to gain a sense of freedom.

As Larzer Ziff states that the omnious occurrence of Scaffold is to condemn Puritan,s cruelity : “The strong Puritan sense of evil as an active principle was more serviceable when personified. ”(1964:254 1st edition) This symbol represents shame sin and the concept of loneliness. The next important symbol in this novel is the “Forest” that is actually the place where the sin took place .This symbol is associated with adultery and other sin as dark magic .This is a place where all the puritan laws were broken. As Jamie Barlowe notes : “Hawthorne represents his Puritan fathers as desiring Hester Prynne’s punishment,which of course she is seen as deserving. Prynne has been fearfully transgressive, and the combination of fear and desire that

Hawthorne applies visual imagery through the novel to display Hester’s confinement and detachment from society even from her own self. Hawthorne exhibits Hester’s closure from the public eyes when the Salem society sends her off to a cottage in the “… the forest, covered hills, towards the west,” with including a “… concealed the cottage from view” (Hawthorne 73). During this, we readers understand the situation Hester’s sadness causes her to “… be shut out from … human charities,” (Hawthorne 73). Hester then secludes herself for when she feels the need to speak with the Revered Arthur Dimmesdale about her adultery and also the true identity of Roger Chillingworth being her

“Child, what art thou?” (88). So verbalizes Hester Prynne, the main character of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, to her daughter Pearl, one of the most intricate characters of the novel. Pearl is arduous to decipher because Hawthorne has engendered an ebony and white world where only Puritan truth subsists. There is only right or erroneous; Hester’s sin is considered to be immoral, so she should repent. Arthur Dimmesdale’s preaching is considered to be moral, so he should be revered. It is right to reverence Puritan elders, but it is erroneous to revolt against the Puritan values. It seems as if the Puritan worldview governs the laws of the world that Hawthorne has engendered. In this world of pellucidly defined antitheses, Pearl stands out as

Puritan tradition is full of shaming the “wrong” in a very cruel and brute like manner. The shaming of Hester seems to bring the town joy or solace, because they can put all of the guilt that comes with sin on her, while concealing theirs. As God fearers, the Puritans know that sin is within everyone, yet they continue to condemn and shame one person, even though it is universal. Hawthorne is demonstrating and shaming the hypocritical aspects seen in Puritan citizens at the time in the early days of America. The first example of this is in the market place. “…they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead…”, “This woman has brought shame upon us all and ought to die. Is there not a law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statue book…” (43). The author shows the reader the twisted mindset of the Puritans using diction to make the women sound as harsh as possible. The fact they are considered “Goodwives” is ironic, because even the sophisticated and “pure” ladies in the town are

I disagree with the statement on not sympathizing Hester Prynne, because its not Hester’s fault to be born during the puritan period where morals, ethics, and unwavering sternness were strictly to be accepted and followed. Through the description of the puritan society, reveals Hawthorne’s critical attitude towards it. Hester was prisoned for seven years as a punishment for her sin and wears an embroidered scarlet letter (symbol shame) A on her chest, which signifies adultery. Hester is prisoned for adultery and later is led through the unsympathetic crowd to the scaffold. The women in the crowd near the

This idea is built upon by the introduction of Hawthorne’s main character, Hester Prynne, and the mental and physical isolation she faces due to her act of sin committed in the Puritan community. For the first part of her punishment she forced to stand upon the town scaffold completely alone, save for the infant she carries, and endure the “cruel weight and hardness of reality” (40). Since her sin, in that time period, was ruled evil and against the law of the Bible, the community’s response was to isolate her upon the scaffold as punishment, creating a demonstration of the Puritan